Taylor Hopes Recent Momentum Continues at Watkins Glen
Photo: Geoff Miller/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
By Dennis Krause
Fresh off a strong ninth place finish in the 94th annual 24 Hours of Le Mans, and a podium finish on the streets of Detroit, Ricky Taylor hopes to continue his positive momentum this weekend at the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Sahlens Six Hours of Watkins Glen.
“Yeah, it's nice just to get a bit of a rhythm of the season going, “ said Taylor, who will be teamed up with regular co-driver Filipe Albuquerque. “We don't race that often. It feels like we're in the car a lot lately, which has been nice.”
“Yeah, it's nice just to get a bit of a rhythm of the season going,” said Taylor, who will be teamed up with regular co-driver Filipe Albuquerque this weekend in the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series R.
“We don't race that often, and it feels like we're in the car a lot lately, which has been nice.
“Also, the team has been performing well. I think we're getting a bit of momentum with the car, after the podium in Detroit, some strong, some strong pace in Le Mans. A couple of issues got in the way of a result, but yeah, I think the momentum of the team is there. It's nice to be driving.
“I feel like all the drivers are sort of on their game, so yeah, excited to go to the Glen. It's always a great event. Action (Express Racing) is super strong. They had a good test. I think it was a lot earlier in the month or last month, and so we will hopefully learn from our Cadillac teammates there.”
Coming off that podium finish at Detroit and its pace at Le Mans, Taylor has confidence that will transfer to this weekend.
Photo: Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
“I think looking at our season as a whole, we had pretty good pace in Daytona, where we didn't get to show the result at the end, or Sebring where we had decent pace. And then Le Mans was pretty good. We had some rough races in between there, but Le Mans, the pace was good.
“If I'm noticing trends, it's like we have pretty good qualifying pace, and then relative to the 31 (Action Express car), we just seem to struggle a little bit in the races. But at Le Mans our pace was improved. So, Le Mans is probably closest to something like Watkins Glen on our schedule, very smooth, high speed. And so, hopefully, we can carry some of that through.
“It's also a long race,” Taylor noted. “It'll be nice to get back in the rhythm with just Filipe and I in the car. So, yeah, I think it does apply, and I think the team is really motivated. Having one car for Le Mans also was really good to get everybody focused on one thing. Whereas two cars can be quite daunting. And as good as we are, as good as the team is, I think focusing on one was able to get into all the details, which these cars are so detailed these days that it makes a difference. So, we can now kind of apply that here, here at home.”
Still looking for that first win since switching back to Cadillac from Acura at the end of 2024, Taylor says that certainly serves as motivation.
“Yeah, it's been hard. In fact, going to Le Mans making it to HP2 (Hyperpole 2) and having a legitimate chance at fighting for pole, and honestly, it was a bit of a weird feeling to be fighting at the front again. It’s been so long since we've been consistently at the front. It has been really hard. It's been a trying time. So, it's really motivating.
“Like, I don't think the motivation has ever gone away. I think being used to being in that situation again. I think we just have to get back to that being a usual occurrence, and I think having a taste of it in Le Mans definitely made us hungry in that respect, but the motivation was never lost. It's just been a bit of a frustrating couple years.”
Photo: Jake Galstad/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
Also serving as motivation for this weekend is the fact that Watkins Glen has been a good track for WTR over the years.
“Yeah, I think historically it's been a good track for Wayne Taylor Racing,” concurred Taylor, a three-time winner at The Glen. “The funny thing is, it’s regardless of car. Some things we can't really understand why there are certain trends, but even all the way back to Daytona Prototype era it was just a good track for us.
“I think, historically, our team and Action Express always ran high rake, high diff, soft car, and we always ran a stiff, low rake open diff car. Just historically through the years, and I think that style just always seems to suit Watkins for whatever reason. However, they are super strong there as well. It is a good track for us and the win eluded the team for a long time. It was actually one of the races on one of our mechanics, Bill Mullen, that he hadn’t won for awhile. Then eventually, we got the win a couple of years ago in the Acura.
“But yeah, I think regardless of how strong you are, that race is just really difficult to come through at the end, so I think that's where the focus will be, will be just on positioning ourselves well throughout the race. It’s a lot like Le Mans or Spa and that the weather pops up out of nowhere. So, I think a big thing is being ready for a quick range shower and adapting to conditions.”
The 24 Hours of Le Mans, as part of the World Endurance Championship, has different rules and procedures from IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. After penalties for running afoul of several slow zones at Le Mans, Taylor says it’ll be nice to get back to racing were the procedures of more second nature.
Photo: Cadillac Racing
“Yeah, given the weekend we just had, t is nice to be home; we are so comfortable with it and the team didn't make any mistakes with the rules. I had the one, and Filipe had one, and then the other ones were unrelated. But I thought the team did a really good job keeping up to speed with the change in rules. It is so different, and they are really good at enforcing penalties over there (laughs). And they're really hard to come back from, something as simple as the blue flag rule. You're not really allowed to race the race leader to get back on the lead lap, and that's something an IMSA that I think is amazing, your race is never done. As long as you have speed, your race is never over.
“But yeah, it's nice to be home. It's nice to get back to our rules and what we're used to. But I think as a team, it was an honor, and a cool experience to get to go back there as the American team.”
Usually, the Watkins Glen race is the weekend after Le Mans, but this year there is an extra week in between. According to Taylor, having that extra week is very much welcomed by the crew.
“Yeah, we obviously had to take a lot of people. It's a big effort to go over there, and a bunch of the guys stayed back to prep the Watkins Glen cars. The Le Mans car prep is very similar to an Indy 500 prep, where the body fit and all the uprights and everything are very, very important. So the guys spend a lot of time on that prep, and then once we get through Detroit, more than half the team leaves.
“We’ve got a really strong core group of guys that stayed back. Everybody wanted to go, but we’re thankful for those guys to stay back and prep the Watkins Glen cars. So it’s really nice that we have that extra week, especially for the guys to get back and get some sleep.
“I think drivers, we have it easiest and we're selfish. We just want to drive every opportunity we can. It is nice to be coming off of a 24-hour race, where you get lots of seat time and we don't get to drive these cars as often as we used to, with a limited testing and I think the more you drive, the better it's going to be. You can see how strong the guys who do double-programs perform, and so this is the time in the season when the regular drivers feel the strongest.”
For Taylor and company, motivation, momentum and rest could be the winning formula this weekend at The Glen.
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute.